Gregory Forth

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Gregory L. Forth is a retired professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta. He earned his PhD from University of Oxford in 1980. Beginning in 1986, Forth was a professor at the University of Alberta for over thirty years. [1] [2] Forth is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. [3]

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As a social anthropologist, Forth's position is both structuralist and interpretivist. [4] He is known for his contributions to ethnoscience. [4]

Forth has conducted fieldwork in eastern Indonesia, and has worked with the Kéo and Nage of Flores island. [3]

In November 2020, his book A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path: Animal Metaphors in Eastern Indonesian Society won the Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year. [5]

In February 2023, Forth suggests in his book, Between Ape and Human: An Anthropologist on the Trail of a Hidden Hominoid, based on stories told by natives of Flores, Indonesia, that the diminutive humanoid Homo floresiensis could still be alive in Indonesia, citing indigenous accounts of the folk creature ebu gogo or the lai ho'a. [6] [7]

Publications

Related Research Articles

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Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including Komodo Island off its west coast, the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and the population was 1,878,875 in the 2020 Census ; the official estimate as at mid 2022 was 1,919,395. The largest towns are Maumere and Ende. The name Flores is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "Flowers".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sumba</span> Island in Indonesia

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<i>Homo floresiensis</i> Archaic human from Flores, Indonesia

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The Ebu Gogo are a group of human-like creatures that appear in the folklore of Flores, Indonesia. In the Nage language of central Flores, ebu means "grandparent" and gogo means "one who eats anything". A colloquial English equivalent might be something like "old glutton".

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References

  1. Forth, Gregory (1989). "Animals, Witches, and Wind: Eastern Indonesian Variations on the "Thunder Complex"". Anthropos. 84 (1/3): 89–106. JSTOR   40461676 . Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  2. Forth, Gregory (3 May 2022). Between Ape and Human. Pegasus Books. ISBN   9781639361434 . Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  3. 1 2 "Gregory Forth". University of Alberta Department of Anthropology. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  4. 1 2 Corbey, Raymond (Winter 2009). "The folk zoology of Southeast Asian wildmen" (PDF). International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter. 52. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  5. "Let it flow: A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path wins 42nd Diagram Prize". The Bookseller. 27 November 2020. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  6. Ly, Laura. "Everything old is new again". Work of Arts. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  7. Hamks, Micah (15 February 2023). "A Humanlike 'Living Fossil" Cold Still Be Alive In Indonesia, This Anthropologist Says". TheDebrief.org. Retrieved 16 February 2023.